From the American Anglican Council:
Beloved in Christ,
As we went to press last week there was breaking news of the decision of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, finding in favor of the local parish of All Saints', Pawley's Island and against the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and The Episcopal Church (TEC). Among the findings of the court is that the so-called "Dennis Canon" is illegal in SC and has no effect. The basis for this is that one person can't establish a trust on someone else's property. It is the person who owns the property that is the one to establish a trust, if they wish to. Makes sense, doesn't it? As the court stated in the finding, "It is an axiomatic principle of law that a person or entity must hold title to property in order to declare that it is held in trust for the benefit of another or transfer legal title to one person for the benefit of another."
The argument of TEC over the last decade has been that the parishes acquiesced in the process by sending parish representatives to their diocesan conventions which elected diocesan deputies, which in turn sent those deputies to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1979, when, in a murky process, the Dennis Canon may have been passed by Canon Law procedure. Then after the convention, parishes were not directly notified that their property had been alienated by this new imposed trust, so since they weren't notified, of course they didn't take immediate action to refute it. Therefore, by this process of indirect representation before the fact and lack of action after the fact, the trust was imposed, if you believe TEC. Unfortunately, several courts have deferred to the assertions of the Presiding Bishop's legal counsel and bought this line of thinking.
In reality this is similar to the television program "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" A fifth grader could tell you that it isn't fair for a teacher to take a student's bicycle that he rode to school and claim it is hers. So, the courts ruling in favor of TEC would have bombed out on the television program that measures fifth grade intelligence.
Thank God that courts are now beginning to see through the artificial complexity of TEC's arguments. Comments by the judge in the Ft. Worth litigation stated the obvious, and now that is reinforced by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The finding would seem to say that any Episcopal congregation with clear title to their property in the Diocese of Upper South (USC) or South Carolina could walk away, if they followed some easy to understand guidelines embedded in the decision. In the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, the question for an orthodox Anglican Episcopal Church might well be, why would they stay? Yes, the Second Coming is promised and waited upon with hopeful anticipation among the faithful. Other than that, are they hopeful that they can elect an orthodox bishop for USC? If they did, it seems unlikely that the new bishop would secure confirmation from TEC, unless he/she somehow bound the diocese in perpetuity to TEC, something the bishop alone doesn't have the authority to do.
In the Diocese of South Carolina, there is a dilemma. Some congregations are ready to bolt, even though they have an orthodox bishop, +Mark Lawrence. If Bishop Lawrence is willing to take SC out of TEC, he has the SC courts to back him, and it seems that almost all of his parishes would follow him. If he chooses to stay and TEC continues on its present trajectory, he risks seeing a steady erosion of some of his larger parishes. This in time would leave him with the remaining balance tilted toward the more liberal parishes who want to stay in TEC, significantly reducing his options. Our take on the situation is that the strategic time for Bishop Lawrence to act is in the next three or four months, and if he sends a clear message that departure consideration is on the table, most of his parishes would wait for him. Bishop Lawrence has done one of the best analysis of the wreck of the Episcopal Church by current liberal leaders, and he is widely known to be solidly orthodox. It may be that this is a Kairos moment that has now been presented to him. Pray for him earnestly.
Now we move from the serious to the bizarre but sad. Greg Griffith reports on the Stand Firm in Faith blog that the arcane antics of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori have taken a new low. In an article titled "815 Appeals for Donations to Sue Christians" he shares a letter that the Episcopal Church Mission Funding Initiative has sent out to select attorneys in the Episcopal Church. The director of the Mission Funding Initiative, The Rev. Susan J. McCone, wrote on September 18, asking attorneys to give to the Episcopal Church litigation mission called the St. Ives' Fund. No, seriously, she did this, and it is considered missionary work of TEC to litigate. Having a family member and friends who are attorneys, I do understand that attorneys need full employment, but really, invoking the Patron Saint of Attorneys to be the Patron Saint of Litigation! We can now jest that the Mission Department of the Episcopal Church is Dewey, Suem and Howe, and not be too far off. Ms. McCone reminds her recipients to make their checks out to the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, and write St. Ives Fund on the memo line. Keep in mind that this is on Mission Fund Initiative Letterhead, and with her name as the director.
For some time rumor has circulated that the trust funds in the care of TEC were being renamed, using numbers like Swiss accounts, and stripping them of the text that indicated how the donors intended the funds to be used. We have not run with that story, but now in light of the above action, investigative journalists may want to dig into that rumor which has been on the street for almost a year.
Back to positive news, the North American Anglican Cursillo folks who are out of TEC have reorganized and formed Anglican 4th Day (The Episcopal Church currently holds a license from the Roman Catholic Cursillo movement for the trademark name "Cursillo"). In Canada, the 2009 meeting of the Canadian House of Bishops stated that "diocesan bishops have the authority to decide who may serve on Cursillo leadership teams," and pointed out that clergy and laity who are members of the Anglican Network in Canada, which is affiliated with the new Anglican Church in North America, should not be given permission to have any role in the Cursillo movement. Looking at this from a positive standpoint, I agree that the 4th Day movement should be separate from the Anglican Church of Canada and their heterodox beliefs and practices, and in the States, free from TEC's influence as well.
The battle within the Daughters of the King (DOK) seems to be resolving itself with the formation of the Daughters of the Holy Cross, which will be an order for women within the Anglican Church in North America. Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori directly intervened to express her opinion to the DOK that they should change their practices and now exclude non-Episcopalians, and so hundreds of former DOK members felt unwelcome in their order. The Daughters of the Holy Cross gives them the opportunity to take similar vows and continue the valuable work they did under their former order. Daughters of the Holy Cross, may our Lord bless and sustain you in your work and ministry, done to his honor and glory.
And last but not least, Alpha USA is holding a national conference this October 20-21 in Orlando, Florida. I encourage you to look into this discipleship event and consider attending. I'm also pleased to announce that if you decide to attend, you'll receive a special discount of $70 off the standard rate of $159. To register and receive this discount, go to www.alphausa.org/conference and enter the voucher code "bishopnac09". You can also call the call center at 1-800-362-5742 and provide the voucher code to an agent in the call center. Please consider attending this wonderful discipleship and training conference.
Blessings and peace in Christ Jesus,
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council
No comments:
Post a Comment